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Jonathan Kay, MessengerGeekIt's a Live thing. November 26 Update to the Windows Live Communications PlatformWith the recent final forced upgrade to Windows Live Messenger 2009 from Windows Live Messenger 8.5 came an updated version of the Windows Live Communications Platform which hadn’t seen a change since February (the original QFE release). The existing version of the Windows Live Communications Platform contained a bug wherein in some cases, the contact list would appear empty within the various Windows Live applications (most obvious in Messenger and Mail). This bug appears to have been corrected in this release and presumably the forced upgrade was delayed for 8.5 until this fix was ready. As this is a small update to the existing QFE 2 suite, I’ve elected to simply update the QFE 2 entry with this small update. Upgrading from the existing Windows Live Communications Platform version
Technical Details Files updated (check your version/files in your Program Files’ Windows Live\Contacts folder):
September 14 Messenger server problems today
This is most likely due to changes being made for tomorrow’s (Sept. 15th) forced upgrade to Windows Live Messenger 2009. I would expect it to be resolved by tomorrow. If you’re not aware of the forced upgrade, as of tomorrow if you’re using Windows Live Messenger 8.x, you will be forced to update to the 2009 version to sign in to Messenger. This is due to a security issue found in the Microsoft’s ATL library, which is only fixed in the latest version of Messenger. The MessengerSays blog has the full announcement. As well, this forced upgrade has already been shaky, with workarounds required for some versions of Windows which aren’t officially “supported”. You can upgrade Messenger at the Windows Live download site, or install the MSI files yourself here on my blog. It really would be preferred if a version of Windows Live Messenger 8.5 (2008) was made available with the ATL security fix. 2009 is hardly a bug-free release, and downgrading has been a legitimate “fix” for everything from missing contacts to performance problems. Sadly, I doubt this will happen for the typical time, resources, and money problems. August 26 Wrong forced upgrade for Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP x64 users (solutions inside for os_check: 0x80280004)Over the past day, if you’ve attempted to log into any version of Messenger on Windows Server 2003 or Windows XP x64, you will receive a notification to upgrade Messenger:
If you choose Yes, the latest installer of Windows Live Messenger will download and attempt to execute. You’ll then be presented with the following “Sorry, you cannot install the programs you’ve chosen on this operating system. Error: os_check: 0x80280004”:
You see this message because Windows Live products are not supported on these version of Windows (but will work anyway). This sort of thing isn’t new, Messenger has been blocked from installing on some Windows versions before. Solutions Solution 1 – Forcing your current version to continue working You can continue to use your current version of Messenger by setting it into Windows XP compatibility mode (yes, even on XP 64-bit). Since the instructions, paths, and shortcuts will change depending on which Messenger and Windows version you’re using, I’ve created a quick application you can run to make the necessary changes.
You can now sign in as per normal. You will not need to run the msngrcompat.exe again. Solution 2 – Forcing the latest version of Windows Live Messenger 2009 to install Although the latest version of Windows Live Messenger will claim not to install on your version of Windows, you can still install it. You’ll just need to download and run the following Microsoft Installer (MSI) files:
After this you’ll find Windows Live Messenger on the start menu. For the other Windows Live products and some of the optional components installed with Messenger, see my full blog entry on installing and uninstalling Windows Live 2009 QFE2 applications. Final notes August 18 Installing/uninstalling Windows Live 2009 (Wave 3) QFE 2 applications and the Windows Live Communications Platform updateThis article supersedes the Installing/uninstalling Windows Live 2009 QFE applications with the second QFE (Quick Fix Engineering) release versions of the Windows Live “Wave 3” 2009 products and the released version of Windows Live Movie Maker. Beyond the released version of Windows Live Movie Maker, it is not known what has changed with the other applications. The changed components are Windows Live Movie Maker, Windows Live Family Safety, Windows Live Mail, Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Photo Gallery, Windows Live Sync, Windows Live Writer, Silverlight, Live Essentials Installer, Junk Mail filter update, and Choice Guard. Below you will find all Windows Live Suite 2009 “Wave 3” applications, a download link to the Microsoft Installer (MSI) file, what’s also necessary to install each application and instructions on how to properly remove each without the Windows Live installer. This allows you to install on non-supported Windows versions (Windows XP x64), fix broken Windows Live Installer installs or just to avoid the Live Installer altogether. Note: A few of the packages come in both 32-bit and 64-bit varieties. If you’re not sure if you are using a 32-bit or 64-bit operating system, you most likely have a 32-bit operating system and should use the 32-bit packages. You can verify your operating system type using this article. Windows Live Messenger You can also uninstall Messenger 2009 (even if the above isn't working) by using my ZapMessenger utility. Windows Live Mail Windows Live Toolbar Windows Live Photo Gallery Windows Live Movie Maker Windows Live Writer Windows Live Family Safety To uninstall these secondary components, see Secondary Components below. Microsoft Silverlight 3.0 Microsoft Office Live Add-in 1.3 Microsoft Office Outlook Connector Installer Components Choice Guard Windows Live Sign-in Assistant Windows Live Upload Tool Windows Live Essentials Installer Segoe UI Font Secondary Components Microsoft Application Error Reporting Microsoft Visual Studio Runtime Direct3D 9 Note: This component was recently updated, see Update to the Windows Live Communications Platform for more details. Windows Live Call Windows Live Sync/Microsoft Sync Framework Runtime/Microsoft Sync Framework Services Search Enhancement Pack Junk Mail filter update Windows Imaging Component (XP only) Windows Imaging Component Hotfix SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition July 26 Windows 7 user experience guidelines and MessengerOne aspect of software development that I’m quite keen about is user interface design (or user experience depending on who you’re talking to). The art of designing an interface which is both intuitive to new users, powerful and familiar to experienced users, but yet still maintains a clean look varies from difficult to downright impossible. Microsoft publishes user experience guidelines for Windows to maintain application consistency and to [try to] keep developers as sane as possible. I’ve always enjoyed reading through the guidelines, not just for educational purposes but because they frequently use Messenger to show the “incorrect” interface implementations. Lucky for us, they didn’t fail to disappoint in the Windows 7 version of the guidelines. Suspiciously the name Jonathan is used in a majority of these screenshots, but I promise it’s not me! Please note that these images are mainly mock-ups and will never be seen in the actual Messenger application. Take this example of using Windows 7’s thumbnail toolbars incorrectly. If this were real, it would certainly be a bit difficult to find and unnecessary. However, being able to sign into another account in this way would be nice: Another incorrect example using the same button to represent some sort of ‘Remember me’ feature: Thumbnail toolbars are supposed to be instant, one-click affairs and this example shows that being implemented incorrectly with a menu right above: This shows the correct way Messenger uses an overlay icon on the new taskbar to show your current status: …and this shows the wrong way: The mail icon here is noted as being for “chat”, but I suspect Joe (I guess it was Jonathan’s day off) would think otherwise: The options screen gets an appearance as an example of the correct reasoning to use vertical tabs: Here’s a balloon I’m sure most people have seen before. This is an example of an incorrect warning notification as it serves little purpose besides to worry and distract the user: Messenger even makes a star appearance with the correct example of several other dialogs: According to the guidelines you are not to put your own controls (buttons) in the window frame, but instead leave them in the application window itself. This is an example of it being done incorrectly: An old version of the Live Messenger setup is used to show the correct way of allowing users to opt-in. Sadly none of these options exist in the latest installer: Finally, the guidelines now state to avoid window titles that have “awkward truncations” as shown in this sample: July 15 Solutions for the “broken camera” icon and grayed out options bug in Video Call and WebcamSo you’ve set up your camera successfully in Messenger. Next, you click the Video button at the top of the screen, your contact accepts and you see them but all they see is: Or instead of a video call, you want to use the Show my webcam feature but when you try it appears grayed out:
The solution Finally at the bottom of the first options category, verify that the “Allow others to see that I have a webcam” options is selected and click OK. You’ll now need to sign out of Messenger and sign back in. To do this, just right-click the notification area icon (Windows XP/Vista) or taskbar button (Windows 7) and choose Sign Out. Then right-click it again and choose Sign In.
You should now be able to initiate a video call successfully and select the show webcam option. My show webcam option is still grayed out Click Next on the audio setup screen to get to the webcam selection. From the dropdown, select Disable. Then finally choose Finish. In testing, it seems you may need to repeat this process with every Messenger session. Note: There are plenty of other webcam issues dealing with connectivity and some driver issues which won’t be fixed by either of these solutions. Future blog entries will deal with some of these issues. July 01 Solve Messenger forgetting your username and password with Make Messenger Remember
Uninstalling the toolbar will not address the problem as its installer causes damage to your Windows user profile’s registry. To correct all possible causes of this problem, I have created Make Messenger Remember. How to use Choose the Fix button for Make Messenger Remember to make the necessary fixes and restart Windows. After Windows starts again, start Messenger if its not set to automatically do so already, and verify that your Live ID and/or password have returned. In some cases you may have to sign in manually at least more one time.
Requirements: Download Make Messenger Remember
Special thanks to MersauX, ilyaz and FYu for both testing and providing me the necessary data to create a fix to this problem. |
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There’s been Messenger server problems today, causing instant messages not to be delivered to contacts and possibly issues with signing in. 
![Aa511446.Taskbar04(en-us,MSDN.10)[2]](https://uvuotg.blu.livefilestore.com/y1myKlOvD_iENoaPCI3Wz6_sVgTSTud6pnxIv5aiIqt0AYt8kTtyMjuFncgtjMHfCSoXlL9d9x4zGx7E3OYr3mxAkG3t6ZB59J8zVLHXBbrXqRowXPeMUgJ9qiHvHaMr3dqfdpnf36tIMDUiadCs1DMZQ/Aa511446.Taskbar04(en-us,MSDN.10)[2][5].png "Aa511446.Taskbar04(en-us,MSDN.10)[2]")
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![Aa511446.Taskbar16(en-us,MSDN.10)[1]](https://uvuotg.blu.livefilestore.com/y1mEh9bbrql0oEa-2cR2u64mVTwJxydtf5bWbtC1WaJvmw6eqhf0wY4IzfSBZ-lpwtcZevyG0aQ-IlO6EGepAJTWUkhog3Q_k-npIm7BjPwkAQ8yCSJmrPk7HXkRq2dBcaT61fe43GTKue6MePm9BnX2A/Aa511446.Taskbar16(en-us,MSDN.10)[1][5].png "Aa511446.Taskbar16(en-us,MSDN.10)[1]")
![Aa511446.Taskbar42(en-us,MSDN.10)[1]](https://uvuotg.blu.livefilestore.com/y1mYbNQX3hD3PmYymR6tj3rYMooIRXrAOdM-edpx65B-DmSuw6WMFDyflsXuKozmR1QGibshWD4Yolb19XRmk4NTQyZ7vcc8jJpZMUW_mgFt3s_GJjd9WicWI--ZU57-uXIqJ3XF_rTDqZhFhIi9gX-_A/Aa511446.Taskbar42(en-us,MSDN.10)[1][5].png "Aa511446.Taskbar42(en-us,MSDN.10)[1]")
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![Aa511263.Warnings05(en-us,MSDN.10)[1]](https://uvuotg.blu.livefilestore.com/y1mQ3Vf0OxY2UDfSGVq3tQJHhtmNlgSglcpQ8D2379FmuBObmHuxdZIrzMfSUfjHqL8VlAzRRkGBTh9bLObKXXX44a6H1xcacyqxjoj9Ea4-lrxrblDx5AiA0N0RyMf0djrnVM2NYSt1T2V-jEE3Q91KQ/Aa511263.Warnings05(en-us,MSDN.10)[1][5].png "Aa511263.Warnings05(en-us,MSDN.10)[1]")
![Aa511268.Dialogs24(en-us,MSDN.10)[2]](https://uvuotg.blu.livefilestore.com/y1meWA18e7x6oIOQqYh0VV_E8zZFGNtqX07ZN6FVxo5a1ha7EGnLcNuKPDJhXMlO4hiBxmzodAzVjfX27snBPw83Re2GgfUb5FhqdJh5lr01yjUyVZ5ENh8L39UgRgyWkypq9FfW2V78Nmx8c7L-IGEsQ/Aa511268.Dialogs24(en-us,MSDN.10)[2][5].png "Aa511268.Dialogs24(en-us,MSDN.10)[2]")
![Aa511268.Dialogs26(en-us,MSDN.10)[1]](https://uvuotg.blu.livefilestore.com/y1m8c70BPw6os_0thWK9tUPgfAp4s-h7BpPGEjFop-YQe5QDylEudKRQL48_0ZCy8vc3euj0Yses1fHcNVYaVknmU3Cb9ryROsJHvHXw_rlPSvGZ5BGnaVLMF04sDykuStf2vAcCp9ktcfKmA3GlbG5YQ/Aa511268.Dialogs26(en-us,MSDN.10)[1][5].png "Aa511268.Dialogs26(en-us,MSDN.10)[1]")
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![Aa511446.Taskbar52(en-us,MSDN.10)[1]](https://uvuotg.blu.livefilestore.com/y1mNYsXKtyfSR-fsl_fC9rKQEPFf0YHBChFhoju7jQbVvQ7d6j9UnL5W90FaBqyW11dH_lSvBmr2w6cWXwoqyuiJJ9Iueqy4qoZNeh-ScLQYLc_U4g6D1fXWRQRTHvhfsLP4wexHzCufV0SANK2Bgs60g/Aa511446.Taskbar52(en-us,MSDN.10)[1][4].png "Aa511446.Taskbar52(en-us,MSDN.10)[1]"){kind=small}
Recently there has been an upsurge of problems regarding Windows Live Messenger “forgetting” Windows Live IDs after a Windows restart. Although there are some known policies in Windows which can cause this to occur, after many hours of testing and research, the latest culprit appears to be the Yahoo Toolbar.
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